Tony O’Donoghue told us that the first time the women of the Republic of Ireland and England met in an international, in Exeter back in 1978, just over 600 souls turned up to witness the fixture. And here we were, just the 46 years later, and the two nations were squaring up at the Aviva, of all places, with 32,742 bottoms in seats. And poor old Real Madrid and Manchester City were relegated to the RTÉ News channel. Gas times.
What Tony didn’t mention, possibly for fear of darkening the mood, was that the Irish goalkeeper that day in Exeter was player of the match - despite conceding six goals. Which hinted at a rough day at the office for our bunch.
After 20-ish minutes at the Aviva, you might have been fearing that it would be Exeter all over again, England 2-0 up and cruising. Lauren James barely celebrated her goal, like she expected it to be the first of many. And when England had a chance of going three up when they won their second penalty of the evening, with not half-an-hour on the clock, George Hamilton and Áine O’Gorman’s commentary took on funereal tones.
Alex Greenwood, though, had the good grace to do what she didn’t do with her first penalty, ie miss, so it stayed at 0-2. Hope was, marginally, alive.
Ireland had seemed well up for the encounter. Katie McCabe was Keano-esque in the tunnel when she opted to desist from exchanging friendly glances with her Arsenal teammate and England captain Leah Williamson, Leah reduced to nattering with her mascot while Katie fixed her gaze towards the light at the end of the tunnel with something that approached a death stare.
Anthems. The crowd were respectful when God Save the - checks notes - King filled the air, and while the rendition of Amhrán na bhFiann was very lovely (“it’d give you goosebumps,” said Áine), you’d be half pining for the day when crowds could just bellow it out in unaccompanied peace. No matter.
Two changes for Ireland, Eileen Gleeson introducing the epic podcasters that are Ruesha Littlejohn and Lucy Quinn to her line-up, while Sarina Wiegman was so peeved by England being held to a draw by Sweden at Wembley last Friday, she took out her axe and made an entire five swaps.
Off we went and, following on from that French defeat, the Group of Death took on even more deadly tones when England scored and then won two penalties. All the trouble came down Ireland’s right, Aoife Mannion possibly wishing she was in the stands with her Galway and Mayo relations, although with the Championship kicking off, they were probably knocking lumps out of each other.
[ Clinical England pick off Ireland in front of 30,000 at the AvivaOpens in new window ]
Half-time, 0-2. “A difficult evening,” said our host Marie Crowe, the fire “sucked out of the stadium”. True. But you have a couple of choices on a night like this: you can moan and call for heads to roll, or you can just doff your cap to the superiority of the folk you’ve come up against.
Karen Duggan chose the latter option. “Sometimes you just have to sit back and acknowledge the quality of the opposition,” she said, “we found it hard to lay a glove on them.” Stephanie Roche couldn’t disagree. Plucky, as ever, but Ireland were out of their depth against this crew.
But they don’t give up goals easily. Two in the first 18 minutes, none in the next 72. Nul points from the first two games in the group, though, but that’s in or around what we anticipated.
McCabe gave Williamson a small hug at full-time, but she was spittin’. This team wants to move on up, but it’s no small task. “We’re 10 years behind where they are,” said Karen. It’s not Exeter in 1978, but still - a lot done, more to do.
